Seven ways the enemy is attacking pastors and churches

The evil one seems to be ramping up his spiritual attacks on pastors and Churches today like never before. The gates of hell is really trying to prevail against the church in every locality and community of the world. What are seven ways the enemy is doing this?

• Principalities And Powers In Localities
Recently, a pastor told me the story of how his 200-member church closes down within one year in a community. Thieves broke into the church and stole the ringing bell and prayer clothe of the pastor. And pronto, people stopped coming to the church the next Sunday. That is spiritual warfare by hosts of darkness in that locality. Forces of darkness in communities are arrayed against any church that brings light of the gospel to the people. And they are destroying churches due principally to the ignorance of pastors concerning spiritual warfare.

• The Leaders And Pastors Family
The Christian family is under attack today because if the evil one can create havoc in their family, then he can undermine the work of Christ on earth. Some church members have an unreasonable expectation of the Pastor or Church Leader’s family. One example is that they expect their children to be close to perfect. When they see their children act in ways contrary to the way that they expect them to act, they believe that the Pastor and his wife are doing a poor job in raising them. The thing is that children are going to act like children. We cannot expect the Pastor or the Church Leader’s children to be little angels because they are still children.

The children of Pastors have unfair expectations being put on them. Many of the congregants falsely believe this when they read 1 Timothy 3:4, which says, “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive.” They reason that “A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well” (1 Timothy 3:12) and that “if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church” (1 Timothy 3:5)? Yes, they should be in submission but they are also going to still be children and no matter what a parent does they are still in the process of growing in maturity. Then there are unreasonable expectations about the Pastor or Church Leader’s wife. She is just as much a part of the ministry as her husband is but when they are over critical of her by putting under a magnifying glass, she feels like she is always under scrutiny.

• Church Division
There may be nothing more destructive to a church than division and when the congregation starts to divide over non-essential issues then the Pastor or the Church Leaders can end up being stuck in the middle of it. I heard of one large church a few years ago that actually divided over the colour of the carpet and when the Pastor tried to heal the rift, both sides felt he was siding the others. What happened was that half the church left to begin a new church and the Church Leaders took the blame. This all started at a board meeting when the members couldn’t agree on what the colour of the new carpet should be.

Sometimes the church leaders and the pastoral staff divide over things that are non-essential like how a children’s ministry should be run, what the goals should be, and who should be over the ministry. If the enemy can create a division or rift between members and the Church Leaders and the Pastor, he can destroy the integrity of the leadership and the church will suffer as a whole.
International Church Growth Ministry
N0, 9B, Adeyinka Allen Street, Orobiyi Bus Stop, Mafoluku.